Most of us are familiar with George Orwell’s book, 1984. That’s where the term “Big Brother” originated, which essentially means a widespread program of electronic surveillance by the government to ensure order. Social media and the many wonders from Silicon Valley have now made it possible.

Many folks already believe that the National Security Agency monitors all electronic communications to find terrorists, spies and any others that might present a danger to the state. It is one of the most classified operations within the government, and Hollywood often depicts its massive information gathering capabilities in action movies. My bet is that their capabilities actually exceed what has been presented in film.

But listening to billions upon billions of calls and internet traffic presents a big problem. The saying, “that’s too much information,” especially holds true for the NSA. One must be able to retrieve relevant information from the data for it to be useful. But how do we separate the wheat from the chaff? The answer is Artificial Intelligence, or “AI” for short.

AI is the simulation of human intelligence by computers, enabling them to acquire information, form rules, and learn from their actions. The more photographs a computer sees of people, the more subtle distinctions it can make, as in facial recognition software. AI is enormously valuable for its ability to search social media and video footage and find specific individuals among the vast amount of data.

More and more cameras are being installed throughout our cities. Years ago, only businesses and government complexes had “security” cameras. If there was a robbery, the tapes (now data storage devices) could be replayed to see what happened and possibly identify the perpetrators. It soon became possible to instantly retrieve camera data from anywhere once the system became connected to the internet.

Video camera doorbells are now being installed by the thousands. You can be notified, even while on vacation, every time someone walks within range of the camera. You can even answer the doorbell via speaker and pretend you’re home. Other countries are way ahead of us in the widespread installation of video cameras. Watch any European crime drama and the first thing the police say is “check the CCTV” (closed-circuit television). And there is always plenty of relevant footage.

As the capabilities of AI increase, there will be no limit to what we can ask the computers to find in all this data. China is at the forefront of this field. After all, with the largest population it has the greatest need to watch its’ people.

A recent piece on 60 Minutes discussed China’s massive facial recognition surveillance system. The Chinese can often identify anyone whose face is within camera range. Want to round up some demonstrators? Just have the system print out their names and addresses for the police. Now you know why those protesters are always covering their faces.

AI also powers automatic license plate readers, which are used by police to automatically locate stolen and wanted vehicles while driving around.

This morning I heard about some new AI software for schools on NPR. The system can be programmed to monitor all of the students’ activities on social media sites and then report anything that suggests the potential of violence to oneself or others. One student commented that it was funny that it was the students, the supposed hope of the future, that were being targeted to prevent violence. The next logical step would be for the government to start monitoring everyone. This will be facilitated by the new 5G network that will provide instant communication between every “smart” device.

Big Brother is definitely here.

Corky Pickering and his wife relocated from the Bay Area to Cottonwood in 2014. He recently retired from the federal government as an attorney advising law enforcement. He has been a rock and roll bass player and a Marine JAG. He can be reached at thecork6@gmail.com.